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Busy times on the farm necessitate lunch deliveries to the fields. One such day recently, I was simply the delivery person.

Our daughter-in-law had made the custom sack lunches with each farmer’s preferences in mind, then labeled them with their names. Because the baby was napping, meals-on-wheels duty went to me.

I located the area in which they were working. It was a spray day for fields of corn. Seeing them in their rig on the opposite end, I parked and waited for them to come back my way rather than attempting to drive across the field and damage any plants.

As I waited, looking at the rows and rows of young corn plants, I thought about how, at this stage of maturity, there weren’t yet ears.

Then those words Jesus used to conclude many of his parables came to mind: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

All that corn without ears … yet. Just as schools were getting out for the summer, I sat privy to a field-trip lesson of my own.

The Holy Spirit reminded me what we see in our day-to-day snippets isn’t the big picture. Therefore, rather than judging something or someone, we are wise not to give up – but instead to watch for the development in progress.

Maybe because May is always filled with graduation festivities, but as I looked over that field of quickly growing yet still immature plants, I saw it — along with the work farmers try to do — as “thy kingdom come.”

True, there aren’t yet ears visible. But they’re coming!

The whole hope of the farmer is to do his part to help grow the crop, knowing the growth is provided by God. Yes, faith and farming go hand in hand. So do faith and doing good.

Soil is prepared. Seeds are planted. Weeds are treated. Fertilizer is applied.

And then, in faith and with great hope, the farmer waits for those ears to develop.

You see, many of Jesus’ parables were related to agriculture because so many he spoke to worked in the fields and could therefore understand these analogies about sowing seeds and such.

While I’m not a farmer (I’m a farmer’s granddaughter, wife and mother), I can vouch that God speaks to us, his children, through his creation.

That day, the Holy Spirit reminded me, despite what “today” looks like on the surface, growth is happening, development is in the works, and those ears will soon appear.

With those young and tender around us, let us be like the farmer. Let us see the potential, do what we can to optimize growth, and in faith, thank God for the harvest to come.

Furthermore, I realized this field before my eyes represented more than just a bunch of teenagers. For I know what that field will look like in the fall – no longer green, but brown and brittle.

Hearing and faith go hand in hand. Then, you know, there’s those works that flow from faith-filled hearts.

And sometimes those of us with ears (even those no longer wet behind the ears) need this reminder from Matthew 13:15: “For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.”

Just as I sat parked waiting for my guys, let us remind others God is at the end of the field just waiting for us to come back toward him.

As I was simply the delivery person that day in the field, and as the farmer delivers applications of fertilizers and such to help plant growth, let us consider what we might deliver or input for the kingdom and for God’s glory.

No matter our age, may we get busy doing good, trusting God with the results. Let us remember it is he who made us, and it is he who has written our names – not on sacks but in heaven.

God made you with his purposeful design. As a believer in Christ, you are growing. Development is happening through the power of the Holy Spirit. Thanks be to God!

Hear it? See it?

“The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the LORD has made them both.” – Proverbs 20:12

“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have the opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” – Galatians 6:7-10

Gina Moore, a news-editorial journalism major, has operated Marketplace Consignment Sale for 29 years and has worked part-time at Treasures. She also enjoys country cooking, reading and writing about motherhood, life on the farm and how God’s love and lessons surround residents.